Enlightenment Through Understanding

libertarianism

The Undermotivated Apostate: Two Post-Libertarian Case Studies 2. Pro-welfare-state. Libertarians have a standard list of objections to the welfare state. Some – like opposition to universal programs and concern about disincentives – are very strong. But the radical objections are much more debatable. I can…

From Social Matter The End Of Atomistic Individualism: A Theory On Who You Are The purpose of this thought experiment is an attempt to formulate a new, sustainable, non-atomistic understanding of the concept of individualism. Modern individualism, as a product of the Enlightenment, has the…

From Wikipedia, the non-aggression principle (NAP) is a ethical stance held among right-libertarians that forbids acts of ‘aggression’ against one’s property rights. Somewhat confusingly, the NAP seems to have many definitions and variants: 1961 Ayn Rand In an essay called “Man’s Rights” in the book…

From Moldbug: Why I am not a libertarian This an important article that delineates Moldbug’s reservations about libertarianism, and outlines his proposal of ‘neocamerialism’ as an alternative to democracy and libertarianism. Moldbug writes: And this is the first reason I am not a libertarian. Libertarianism…

From iSteve: Kinsley on the Advantage of a Written First Amendment European countries, obviously, do not have a statute protecting ‘free speech’. The result is people are occasionally apprehended (severty of punishments vary, from being detained for a few hours or days or, in exceptional…

From Fred Reed: The Inevitability of Eugenics I predict within 50 years America will start giving Eugenics a serious consideration as a way to tackle the growing entitlement spending problem, which by then will be much bigger than it is now if trends persist. Liberals…

From Peter A. Taylor The Resurrection of Classical Liberalism Here’s what I think happened. The US began as an expression of classical liberalism. The founders were steeped in John Locke’s ideas about natural rights, as modified and popularized by writers like James Otis, Thomas Paine,…